Linus Torvalds Releases Linux 1.2.0

Tuesday, March 7, 1995, Linus Torvalds
released Linux 1.2.0, also called “Linux '95”, little less than a
year after his release of the ground-breaking Linux 1.0. In his
announcement, Linus pointed out an important difference—the
license—between the two operating systems, with an elaborate spoof
on Microsoft's license explanation. Here's a short sample from
Linus's spoof:

Linux '95 has several types of licenses, including, but not
limited to:

End-User License Agreement—Applications:This is an
application-specific license, which is intended for a single
application running on your Linux '95-authorized computer. The
license agreement rules differ depending on the application. See
appendix `H'.

End-User License Agreement—Systems:This agreement
is intended for single system product use, such as the Linux '95
kernel license. It's important to note that the Systems product
licenses do not permit concurrent, or second copies. There is a
special Multi-License upgrade program for those that want to start
out with a single license but later expand their setup.

Multi-License Pak:This agreement is intended for
sites with multiple systems, which want to run multiple copies of
the Linux '95 system concurrently and/or on several machines. This
license is available as a 10, 50 or 100-unit license depending on
the size of your installation.

Large institutions that want to possibly combine several
licenses can do so with a standard licensing fee reduction. Please
contact our licensing department for further details.

[...]

We thank you for using Linux '95,

Linus

Of course, Linux 1.2 is still freely available under the GNU
public license, just as Linux 1.0 was, and just as future versions
will continue to be, and so all the licensing fees mentioned above
are $0 per copy...except maybe the “I've got too much money”
license.

Figure

Here is a list of a few of the new features that version 1.2
has, compared to version 1.0:

Highly improved networking.

Faster disk I/O.

EIDE, multiple-IDE controllers, and ATA-CD-ROM
support.

Supports more kinds of floppies, including 2.88
MB.

More CD-ROM devices supported.

Improved SCSI support, support for new SCSI adapter
drivers.

Support for more network adapters.

New, improved memory management.

Multi-platform support underway.

UMSDOS filesystem: install Linux on DOS
filesystem.

New sound driver supports Linux DOOM

Much, much more.

Most Linux vendors are expected to release new versions of
their distributions containing Linux 1.2 soon.

If you have Internet access, you can download the source code
for the new kernel via ftp from ftp.funet.fi, in the directory
/pub/OS/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus/v1.2/. Version 1.2.0 is in the file
linux-1.2.0.tar.gz; by the time you read this, it is likely that a
few bug fixes will have been released, so look for the newest
version there. If you do not have internet access, a local BBS may
have the source code, and any one of the vendors advertising in
Linux Journal will be happy to sell you a CD-ROM with the source
included as soon as they have them available.

Linus has indicated that further testing, and bug fixing as
necessary, will be done for approximately another month, leading to
an even more stable Linux 1.2.x release. He has indicated that he
will probably begin work on a new development series, Linux 1.3.x,
sometime in early April.

Some utilities will need to be upgraded if you upgrade from
Linux 1.0 to Linux 1.2, including networking utilities like
ifconfig. The update program and the module utilities will also
need to be updated. An article in the next issue of Linux Journal will cover the process of updating from 1.0 to
1.2 in detail.

What Does 1.2.x Mean?

Since Linux version 1.0 was released, the version number has
been used to distinguish between “production” or “stable” releases
of Linux and “experimental” or “development” versions. Each version
number has three parts: the major release number, the minor release
number, and the patchlevel. Version 1.1.95, is major version 1,
minor version 1, patchlevel 95. Version 1.2.0 is major version 1,
minor version 2, patchlevel 0. All version numbers with
even minor version numbers are considered
production versions, and official patches to production versions
only include bug fixes, so for instance, between version 1.0.0 and
1.0.9 there were only bug fixes. All version numbers with
odd minor version numbers are development
versions, which (although they usually work fine) are not expected
to be stable—all sorts of changes might have happened during their
development.

Linux 1.2 is the second production release of Linux, and
follows the first production release, Linux 1.0, by just under a
year.

Trending Topics

Upcoming Webinar

Getting Started with DevOps - Including New Data on IT Performance from Puppet Labs 2015 State of DevOps Report

August 27, 2015
12:00 PM CDT

DevOps represents a profound change from the way most IT departments have traditionally worked: from siloed teams and high-anxiety releases to everyone collaborating on uneventful and more frequent releases of higher-quality code. It doesn't matter how large or small an organization is, or even whether it's historically slow moving or risk averse — there are ways to adopt DevOps sanely, and get measurable results in just weeks.